The North Carolina-born singer’s breezy, earnest music recalls the various delights of the Lilith Fair cohort. Just be careful how you search her name
From North Carolina, US
Recommended if you like Fiona Apple, Anaïs Mitchell, Indigo Girls
Up next New album The Hermit out now; touring the US with Jens Lekman in November
Jordan Patterson’s name is unfortunately so close to that of a certain conservative Canadian author that Google suggests autocorrecting your search results when you look her up. The 23-year-old US songwriter couldn’t be much further from his brand of hypermasculine evangelism. Her debut album, The Hermit, recalls the rich 90s scene of offbeat North American female singer-songwriters who would go on to share the stage at Lilith Fair: Shawn Colvin’s acoustic breeziness, Fiona Apple’s earnest blues, Indigo Girls’ strident joy. (Similar era, very different scene: Patterson’s voice has an expressive skippiness that also channels Life Without Buildings’ Sue Tompkins.) Her songs – and I say this as the greatest compliment – could easily have lived on the soundtrack to cosy mother-daughter drama Gilmore Girls. Fittingly, God wonders whether she should have a baby, and Hey Mama pays tribute to her own mother, pairing the scrappy triumph of Tom Petty’s Free Fallin’ with impressionistic vocals that feel like a singer nudging her way towards revelation.
